In the Hands of a Child - America's Great Depression Curriculum- review and giveaway!

Emily and I recently had the opportunity to review the "America's Great Depression" Curriculum from In the Hands of a Child (also known as HOAC!) We were provided the Notepack Ebook version, which is designed for older kids (grades 6-10.) There is also the option for the Lapbook version, either as a download, or a printed copy. You can check out all those options by going to In the Hands of a Child's website.


For those of you with younger children, you would probably want the Lapbook option, and you might need to help your children a lot with the vocabulary, and the concepts. I haven't seen many options around for teaching about the Great Depression as more than just a passing paragraph or a short chapter in a history text, so this intrigued me.

The Curriculum comes with intro pages to help you as the parent be prepared for what your child will learn, and has a 2 page spread that shows a 10 day lesson plan and which activities are suggested for each day. You can obviously modify these plans if you want to, but I appreciate them showing an overview of what will be covered. 

Also included in the intro pages are "I have a Note Pack, NOW WHAT?" (which includes contact info for HOAC), a page of related reading books, activities and instructions pages, and their bibliography. 

Then come the fun pages! America's Great Depression lasted from 1929-1941. During this unit study, your children will learn about various concepts that are important to understanding the economics, politics, and daily life of people who were living during the Depression. For each section that they read, there is a corresponding Note Pack activity to reinforce their learning. I found the style of presentation reminded me of a newspaper, with the body of the information/ reading taking up the left 2/3rds of the page, and either the 'timeline' or photos streaming down the right 1/3 of the page. The section are well written, and not boring. 

Emily and I had some good discussions about the Depression. My Grandparents and their siblings grew up during the Depression, so I often found myself relating a story to her I had heard while growing up. For those of you without family stories to share, this curriculum does a good job of covering what was happening in daily life, not just in economics or politics.

As we were finishing up the review and getting ready to write, we ended up going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and seeing an antique car show. That helped reinforce the idea of the opulance that SOME Americans were living in before the stock market crashed.

As a Mom, I appreciated the sections that covered everyday prices (and wages!) as well as the farming trials and the Dust Bowl states. 

If you, or your child, has never spent time studying the Great Depresiion, I want to encourage you to get this Unit Study and invest a couple weeks learning about this pivitol part of American history! The regular price of the downloadable Ebook version is $12, but for a limited time, you can purchase it for only $8! Yes, that's right, only $8. Printed versions and a version with it all on CD are also available at various prices.

Emily had fun learning about the Great Depression ( I know that's kind of ironic isn't it?) I enjoyed knowing that we didn't wait until her Junior year in High Shool to cover this important time period. A lot of what we discuss every week about politics and economics had its origins in the Depresion era.

Now, for the really FUN part! In the Hands of a Child has graciously offered to sponsor a giveaway of one copy of this curriculum (either the Lapbook Ebook OR the Note Pack Ebook version) for one of you, our readers, to win! How cool is that?

So keep reading below the disclaimer to learn how to enter the giveaway! Please tell your friends about it too!

Disclaimer: We received one downloadable copy of this curriculum to use in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are ours. We are disclosing this in accordance with FTC guidelines.